Schwarzenegger Paroles a Second Murderer

By |November 28, 2003

California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger has agreed to parole a woman who killed her husband’s mistress in 1987, the second time in a week the newly elected governor has granted the release of a convicted murderer.

Schwarzenegger’s decision Wednesday marks a departure from the actions of former Gov. Gray Davis, who during his five years repeatedly refused to grant paroles approved by the state’s Board of Prison Terms.

Davis blocked all but eight of 294 paroles approved by the board in murder cases. He twice rejected parole for Rosario Munoz, the woman Schwarzenegger has agreed to free.

Under state law, the governor can reject the state board’s parole decisions. California is one of only three states that grants governors that power.

Schwarzenegger did not comment on his decision to parole Munoz, a 51-year-old mother of three who was convicted in 1989 of killing her husband’s lover in Los Angeles.

The legislation marks a major change for Republicans, who long hve embraced a law-and-order rallying cry. Now many GOP senators argue for rehabilitating more offenders rather than long-time incarceration.

An Arizona doctor argues that the government should have learned from previous federal anti-drug strategies that blanket prohibition doesn’t work. He calls for scrapping attempts to curtail opioids and replacing it with “harm reduction” policies.

Expensive medications for inmates can lead to substandard care and delays in treatment, and that may have lasting—even deadly—consequences for incarcerated individuals, writes a prison health care advocate.

Murder rates in the nation’s 30 largest cities are projected to fall by nearly 6 percent this year according to the latest data, undercutting claims that the nation is experiencing a “crime wave,” says the Brennan Center for Justice at the New York University School of Law.

School safety commission proposes ending a federal guideline telling schools not to punish minorities at higher rates. The panel largely sidestepped issues relating to guns, although it favors arming some school personnel.